Top Posts
Michael Wolff: The Washington Post announced yesterday that it was putting Newsweek, in recent memory one of the most important news outlets in the country—which the Post has owned for almost a half-century—up for sale. Sad, I was always a big reader of Newsweek and it was the first news publication that I ever got…
Michael Wolff:
The Washington Post announced yesterday that it was putting Newsweek, in recent memory one of the most important news outlets in the country—which the Post has owned for almost a half-century—up for sale.
Sad, I was always a big reader of Newsweek and it was the first news publication that I ever got a subscription to.
Om Malik: The market has read the tea leaves as well, thus explaining the stock performance of Microsoft. Same goes for Intel. Despite its efforts to launch new chips or dabble in likely-to-fail OS efforts such as its joint venture with Nokia, the Mobilin, Intel resembles an elephant on top of quicksand. As I said…
Om Malik:
The market has read the tea leaves as well, thus explaining the stock performance of Microsoft. Same goes for Intel. Despite its efforts to launch new chips or dabble in likely-to-fail OS efforts such as its joint venture with Nokia, the Mobilin, Intel resembles an elephant on top of quicksand.
As I said yesterday:
Competition is almost always a good thing for consumers. My fear would be that Intel tries to monopolize the market much like they did with the PC industry. It would seem to me that if Android or WebOS ran on any mobile chip, that it would take one step closer to being the Windows of the mobile market.
That still stands. A lot of people predicted that Microsoft was too late to get into the video game arena with the introduction of the Xbox. What nobody accounted for was Microsoft’s determination, and money. Intel is seemingly in the same boat.
Edward Wyatt: On Thursday, Mr. Genachowski is expected to assert that the agency, under its powers to regulate phone service, is permitted to require broadband service providers to follow certain transmission guidelines, including safeguarding privacy, not discriminating against certain types of content providers, offering service to rural customers at the same rate as urban customers…
Edward Wyatt:
On Thursday, Mr. Genachowski is expected to assert that the agency, under its powers to regulate phone service, is permitted to require broadband service providers to follow certain transmission guidelines, including safeguarding privacy, not discriminating against certain types of content providers, offering service to rural customers at the same rate as urban customers and providing access to people with disabilities.
This is good.
Nate Anderson: And, if you were an AT&T DSL subscriber, but the company’s records show that nothing improper was done to your line, you can still get money. The proposed settlement says that those who “believe that your DSL Service has not performed at satisfactory speeds” may still be eligible for a “one-time payment of…
Nate Anderson:
And, if you were an AT&T DSL subscriber, but the company’s records show that nothing improper was done to your line, you can still get money. The proposed settlement says that those who “believe that your DSL Service has not performed at satisfactory speeds” may still be eligible for a “one-time payment of $2.00.” Yes—$2.00.
As expected AT&T settled with the Ohio class-action suit over limiting its DSL speed. But hey, it is better than nothing.
Christina Warren: At this point, 75% of teens have cellphones, up from 45% back in 2004. Thirty-three percent of teens send more than 100 texts per day. Teenage boys send an average of 30 text messages per day and girls send an average of 80. Be sure to click through and check out the infographic.…
Christina Warren:
At this point, 75% of teens have cellphones, up from 45% back in 2004. Thirty-three percent of teens send more than 100 texts per day. Teenage boys send an average of 30 text messages per day and girls send an average of 80.
Be sure to click through and check out the infographic. If I were a mobile tech CEO, this is the kind of data I would use to shape my company for the future. Today’s teens make us look like luddites.
Marco Arment: If you currently block ads, is there anything the ads themselves can improve that would make you change your mind? (I’m guessing there isn’t.) Even the best ads are still ads, and still aren’t always appropriate or wanted. I don’t think smarter ads are the solution to this problem. I don’t think ads…
Marco Arment:
If you currently block ads, is there anything the ads themselves can improve that would make you change your mind? (I’m guessing there isn’t.)
Even the best ads are still ads, and still aren’t always appropriate or wanted. I don’t think smarter ads are the solution to this problem. I don’t think ads are the solution to this problem. What if more ad-supported sites and services offered paid no-ads subscriptions?
It is worth clicking through to read his whole post. The gist of which is that no matter what advertisers do you are not going to click on the ad. And no matter what blogs do you probably are not going to pay to support them. I think perhaps the best model is to look at the Daring Fireball’s monetization model. Charging to support the RSS feed, adding in lovely ads and finishing off with T-Shirt sales. Now not every blogger can do this, but it is a great model for John Gruber.
This is the future, this guy has an amazing setup to make a very small apartment very functional. There was a lot of time, thought, money, and technology put into the development of this place. (Warning this is a YouTube link, so there be Flash)
This is the future, this guy has an amazing setup to make a very small apartment very functional. There was a lot of time, thought, money, and technology put into the development of this place.
(Warning this is a YouTube link, so there be Flash)
Dan Yoder: While social networking is a fun new application category enjoying remarkable growth, Facebook isn’t the only game in town. I don’t like their application nor how they do business and so I’ve made my choice to use other providers. And so can you. I have been toying with the very same idea. I…
Dan Yoder:
While social networking is a fun new application category enjoying remarkable growth, Facebook isn’t the only game in town. I don’t like their application nor how they do business and so I’ve made my choice to use other providers. And so can you.
I have been toying with the very same idea. I get very little out of Facebook and put a lot of data out there for that privilege.
Robert Reich: Why is the Federal Trade Commission threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit for abusing its economic power, but not even raising an eyebrow about the huge and growing economic (and political) muscle of JP Morgan Chase or any of the other four remaining giant banks on Wall Street? Our future well being depends…
Robert Reich:
Why is the Federal Trade Commission threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit for abusing its economic power, but not even raising an eyebrow about the huge and growing economic (and political) muscle of JP Morgan Chase or any of the other four remaining giant banks on Wall Street?
Our future well being depends more on people like Steve Jobs who invent real products that can improve our lives, than it does on people like Jamie Dimon who invent financial products that do little other than threaten our economy.
Could not agree more. Did not know this though:
So why is the FTC nosing around Apple and not around Wall Street? Because the Federal Trade Commission Act allows the agency to stop “unfair methods of competition” almost anywhere in the economy except in the financial sector. Banks are explicitly excluded.
Time to make some changes to those rules I think. Big banks had a chance to prove us wrong and instead they made 10% of Americans unemployed. Ooops indeed.
Stuart Green on the “lost” 4G iPhone: Finally, there’s the misguided idea, long espoused by many in the tech community, that “information wants to be free.” But whether it’s in the form of proprietary trade secrets embodied by Apple’s latest iPhone or intellectual property subject to seemingly endless illegal downloading and file sharing every second…
Stuart Green on the “lost” 4G iPhone:
Finally, there’s the misguided idea, long espoused by many in the tech community, that “information wants to be free.” But whether it’s in the form of proprietary trade secrets embodied by Apple’s latest iPhone or intellectual property subject to seemingly endless illegal downloading and file sharing every second of every day, information is not free.
It takes a lot of time and energy and money to write books, compose music, create movies, and design and market electronic devices like iPhones. Such information deserves legal protection, even when it’s been lost in a bar.
This is probably the most clear headed take on the matter, from a law professor no less.
Katherine Boehret for WSJ: Though Microsoft’s Kin One has some polishing to do on its camera and on its social-networking tools, it’s a uniquely attractive device that’s a pleasure to use. I only wish all mobile devices had worry-free backup websites like the Kin Studio. Compared to Joshua Topolsky for Engadget.com: It’s clear to us…
Though Microsoft’s Kin One has some polishing to do on its camera and on its social-networking tools, it’s a uniquely attractive device that’s a pleasure to use. I only wish all mobile devices had worry-free backup websites like the Kin Studio.
Compared to Joshua Topolsky for Engadget.com:
It’s clear to us from conversations we’ve had with Microsoft that there are people at the company with good ideas about what phones should and shouldn’t do, but we don’t feel the Kin is representative of those ideas. The execution (or lack thereof) on these products makes us legitimately concerned about what the company will do with Windows Phone 7. We can only hope that the similarities between those devices and the Kin handsets don’t stretch much further than the “Windows Phone” label, because in our estimation, Kin is one side of the family that needs to be disowned… quickly.
Well those are polar opposite opinions.
WSJ: Google says users will be able to buy digital copies of books directly from its site. It will also allow book retailers—even independent shops—to partner with Google Editions on their own sites, sharing the revenue. and While Mr. Palma didn’t go into details, users of Google Editions would be able to read books from…
WSJ:
Google says users will be able to buy digital copies of books directly from its site. It will also allow book retailers—even independent shops—to partner with Google Editions on their own sites, sharing the revenue.
and
While Mr. Palma didn’t go into details, users of Google Editions would be able to read books from a web browser— meaning that the type of e-reader device wouldn’t matter. The company also could build software for certain devices like an iPhone or iPad.
The first quote is killer, if Google say let people self publish ebooks, sell them through Google and got 60% of the revenue – this is how Apple got the App Store so damn popular. They made it easy for creators to sell to consumers.
The second part though – well no one wants to read an ebook on their computer, let alone in a web browser. The typography would be terrible, Google needs to integrate this with Android and Chrome OS to win some market share.
Robert Mohns: We’re not fans of the huge, side-scrolling “My Documents” view. It’s a gratuitous waste of screen real estate, and doesn’t scale well past a handful of documents. What happens when a user has created twenty or thirty documents? Or a hundred? It’s not far fetched, yet Apple doesn’t seem to have considered that…
Robert Mohns:
We’re not fans of the huge, side-scrolling “My Documents” view. It’s a gratuitous waste of screen real estate, and doesn’t scale well past a handful of documents. What happens when a user has created twenty or thirty documents? Or a hundred? It’s not far fetched, yet Apple doesn’t seem to have considered that obvious scenario.
That never once crossed my mind as a problem, but I can see it happening very quickly.
The final factor is this: If you want to author documents, spreadsheets and presentations on iPad, quickly and easily, and today, Apple’s iWork trio is the only game in town.
That is the same conclusion a lot of people are coming to. There will be updates that will make these apps shine, and there will be more third party offerings. But neither are here right now.
Gabriel Madway: HP launched new notebooks for its high-end Envy brand, with slot-load optical drives and back-lit keyboards, and cut the entry-level price to $999 from $1,299. Sounds like they are taking some of the nicer features from Apple’s notebooks. Can’t blame them there.
Gabriel Madway:
HP launched new notebooks for its high-end Envy brand, with slot-load optical drives and back-lit keyboards, and cut the entry-level price to $999 from $1,299.
Sounds like they are taking some of the nicer features from Apple’s notebooks. Can’t blame them there.
Tarmo Virki: Intel said it has been able to cut the amount of power the chip uses on standby, between tasks, by more than 50 times and Chandrasekher told Reuters last year the power consumption is “very close” and almost matching that of rivals. Competition is almost always a good thing for consumers. My fear…
Tarmo Virki:
Intel said it has been able to cut the amount of power the chip uses on standby, between tasks, by more than 50 times and Chandrasekher told Reuters last year the power consumption is “very close” and almost matching that of rivals.
Competition is almost always a good thing for consumers. My fear would be that Intel tries to monopolize the market much like they did with the PC industry. It would seem to me that if Android or WebOS ran on any mobile chip, that it would take one step closer to being the Windows of the mobile market.
Emily McManus: The TED Open TV Project has already signed up dozens of broadcasters around the world, whose collective audience numbers in the hundreds of millions. Built in response to strong demand from TV station managers around the world, TED’s Open TV Project allows broadcasters to air TEDTalks for free, and encourages them to create…
Emily McManus:
The TED Open TV Project has already signed up dozens of broadcasters around the world, whose collective audience numbers in the hundreds of millions. Built in response to strong demand from TV station managers around the world, TED’s Open TV Project allows broadcasters to air TEDTalks for free, and encourages them to create custom programs for their communities.
TED Talks are great, I love watching these videos, so naturally I think this is a great move. TED has some of the most thought provoking and inspirational videos on the web.
Sarah Kessler: After an early wave of enthusiasm for bulky backpacks with solar-powered chargers, the new bet is on kinetic energy, or energy that can be generated from movement, including the stride of a walker or the turn of a bicycle wheel. The beauty of kinetic energy is that the more something weighs and the…
Sarah Kessler:
After an early wave of enthusiasm for bulky backpacks with solar-powered chargers, the new bet is on kinetic energy, or energy that can be generated from movement, including the stride of a walker or the turn of a bicycle wheel. The beauty of kinetic energy is that the more something weighs and the faster it moves, the more energy it can generate.
25 minutes walking to charge and iPhone = sign me up.
Paul Thurrott: I know that, internally at Microsoft, many people do not agree with the direction the company is going. And all you have to do is read the tech press and, heck, the mainstream press, to see who’s getting all the press these days. It ain’t you, Microsoft. And that is indeed bad news.…
Paul Thurrott:
I know that, internally at Microsoft, many people do not agree with the direction the company is going. And all you have to do is read the tech press and, heck, the mainstream press, to see who’s getting all the press these days.
It ain’t you, Microsoft. And that is indeed bad news.
I have to agree with that whole heartedly. Microsoft for all intents and purposes has dropped off the radar of the press. This is never good for a company, even when Apple is in lock down developing a new product there is still tremendous buzz about the company.
But Thurrott had to go and say this:
And if you’re looking to copy Apple’s success–and you are–then at least do it right. It’s not about the products at all. What Apple does right is marketing. It’s form over function, plain and simple. How else could the world be so excited over an unnecessary over-sized iPod touch? Because it’s from Apple, that’s how. And the press markets it for them, and makes people believe that this is somehow a big deal. It’s a self-replicating back-patting, buddy system, plain and simple.
And you’re not part of the circle, Microsoft. How else can you explain the ginormous Windows 7 sales that get no attention, and certainly no love from Wall Street? You’ve sold over 100 million licenses of this thing in record time and all anyone can talk about are lost iPhones and the iPad. I mean, give me a break.
Actually it is about the products, marketing will sell your products initially, growth comes from having a great product. This is how you explain Apple’s success, amazing marketing to get the early adopters to buy and then the product will carry it the rest of the way. The iPhone / iPod / iPad sales are nuts, and growing still.
Windows 7 has been a financial success I am sure (compared to Vista) and it has sold a lot of copies. That does not make it good however, because unlike with the iPad or iPhone people are not buying it because they want it. People are buying Windows 7 because they don’t want to use a slow, 9 year old Operating System. That and the fact that all new PCs comes with it helps.
From the Website: Central Desktop for Office enables multiple users to simultaneously co-author Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in real time, eliminating the need to upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint/Office 2010 for the same functionality. I am pretty surprised that it took so long for this to come to Office. Looks like it could be pretty…
From the Website:
Central Desktop for Office enables multiple users to simultaneously co-author Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in real time, eliminating the need to upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint/Office 2010 for the same functionality.
I am pretty surprised that it took so long for this to come to Office. Looks like it could be pretty neat for those that need this level of collaboration. I would think though that their user base is very limited in size. Be sure to check out the video for a better understanding of what the software allows.
Frederik Joelving: Despite the encouraging findings, Longhurst said he was concerned about President Obama’s call for rapid implementation of the electronic system. “It should be rolled out by experienced experts,” he said. “And there are only so many experts in this country.” I too agree that it should be rolled out by very experienced people.…
Frederik Joelving:
Despite the encouraging findings, Longhurst said he was concerned about President Obama’s call for rapid implementation of the electronic system.
“It should be rolled out by experienced experts,” he said. “And there are only so many experts in this country.”
I too agree that it should be rolled out by very experienced people. I think the bigger picture with regard to digitizing the healthcare system in hospitals is going to be privacy and security. I think in general everyone agrees that better information (getting all the medical charts at once with computer alerts to allergies) will save lives.
The real question is what the cost to our privacy will be.